Rachel
Dragas

Who I Am

Why It Matters Here

A title is a microphone. What matters is what gets said into it.

I have spent my career in rooms where people are at their most vulnerable, and in rooms where the whole country is watching. I know how to move between them, and I know how to carry the message from the first room into the second.

The GTA, where it was built

National, where it reached

I have competed at this level before

National Finalist at Miss Universe Canada 2025. I know the format, the pace, the interview rounds, the rehearsal schedule, and what it feels like to be measured alongside the strongest women in the country. That experience is already in hand.

Representing an organization is my profession

CBC and Sony Pictures, Google, Genesis, Rémy Cointreau, Shoppers Drug Mart, Toronto Pearson International Airport, and Toronto FC with MLSE have each put their brand in my hands on camera. Organizations of that size do not hand their name to someone who is a risk.

I already hold ambassador titles

Ambassador for the Rosé Picnic with the Canadian Film Centre, and for Elegance Aroma at the Living Luxe Design Show. I know what it means to carry an organization's name in a room where nobody is supervising me.

I do not rattle

My full-time job is staying composed while someone's life is on the line, coordinating with police and emergency services in real time. An unexpected question, a live camera, or a schedule that falls apart does not compare. Composure under pressure is not something I would need to develop for this role. It is the qualification.

I have represented Canada internationally before

I presented my research at international conferences in California, Utah and Florida, speaking for my institution and my country in front of the global scientific community. I have travelled, prepared, and delivered on foreign stages already.

My story travels

A neuroscientist who works a national crisis line and hosts on camera is memorable in any country and in any language. On an international stage full of exceptional women, being unforgettable is the whole game, and no one there will be confused about who I am.

I was born in Toronto to immigrant parents, Serbian and Filipina. I did not come from advantaged beginnings. In high school I was the weird kid who never quite fit one group, pulled toward science and the arts at the same time, and told repeatedly to pick one.

I never did. The person writing this is that kid, grown up, who stopped trying to choose. Two neuroscience degrees and six peer-reviewed papers on one side. A career on camera on the other. A full-time job on the front line of Canada's crisis lines running straight through the middle of both.

None of it arrived on schedule. My path has been marked as much by rejection and redirection as by achievement, and that is where I learned to build. Most of the initiatives I have led did not exist until I found the gap and made the case for filling it. I founded a magazine because graduate students had nowhere to talk about mental health. I chaired Grad Minds because that conversation needed a seat at the table. The support came after the work, not before it.

I did that inside STEM, a field still overwhelmingly male, while also working as an actor, a field that rarely expects a scientist. A woman does not have to choose one lane to make lasting change. The unexpected becomes possible the moment you stop asking permission.

I am not looking to add more roles. I want to make a bigger impact in each one, and prove that intellect, artistry and advocacy can share a single platform.

Competing at Miss Universe Canada, and now as Ms. Greater Toronto Area, lets me stand alongside inspiring women, amplify my humanitarian work in mental health, and challenge long-standing stereotypes about pageantry and about women in STEM. Its holder goes on to represent Regional Canada Pageants at the Royal International Miss Pageant, and that responsibility is one I have spent my career preparing for without knowing it.

The Greater Toronto Area

This region raised me professionally. My research was conducted in its leading hospitals, my degrees earned at its most rigorous university, my work serves its residents and first responders, and my media presence has represented its brands on a national stage.

The GTA is one of the most diverse regions on earth. Representing it means representing all of it, and I have spent nineteen years in the rooms where that diversity actually lives: crisis lines, hospital wards, classrooms, hospices, stadiums, press conferences, and community halls.

One message, every audience

Live hosting & on-camera

Conference & workshop

Scientific & frontline

Formal training

Education

Research

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Founding & Leadership Roles

Volunteer Service

Couture for a Cause

VIP Red Carpet Host, July 22. An exclusive Yorkville fashion show, 600+ VIP guests, $150K raised for CAMH mental health programs. On-camera interviews showcasing the fundraiser's mission.

Rosé Picnic

Ambassador & Correspondent, July 11. Toronto's largest premium picnic, with 5,000+ documented guests annually. Promoted awareness and support for Breast Cancer Canada, the event's charity of choice.

Crown of Hope Gala

MC & Host, June 27. A charity and networking gala raising funds for Autism in Mind, working toward a society with no barriers for children with autism. Featuring live performances by Dani Doucette, Craig Smart, Francesco Yates and Laura Cavacece. Approximately 500 attendees.

Mental Health Awareness

I do this work full time, on Canada's national crisis line, alongside police and emergency services. I am not an advocate who read about it. I am the one who answers the call.

Women in STEM

Two neuroscience degrees, six peer-reviewed papers, fifteen research presentations, and a stage. Girls are told to pick one version of themselves. I want to be visible proof that they do not have to.

Social & Environmental Responsibility

Through Startup Canada I helped deliver the Government of Canada's $50M Investment Readiness Program to entrepreneurs solving social and environmental problems.

Host, MC & Correspondent

Competition History & Placement

Awards, Grants & Fellowships

Training & Certifications

What I built

Who I rallied

Also in the room

Where the pieces went

I have spent nineteen years learning how people work: first as a seventeen-year-old volunteer at CNIB, then on the wards at SickKids, then in a laboratory, then in a hospice, and now on the national crisis line at the worst moment of someone's day. Along the way I learned how to hold a room, and I learned that the two skills are the same skill.

I would speak to the girl who is being told to pick one thing. I aspire to be a role model to young women who see some part of themselves reflected in me, and to demonstrate that no woman is limited by age, circumstance, or societal expectation. Reinvention and purpose are always attainable.

I would use the year to help people realize their fullest potential and carve their own paths, and to keep breaking the stereotypes my own background cuts across: that a scientist cannot be an artist, that an advocate cannot be an academic, that a woman must choose.

What I would bring to Ms. Greater Toronto Area is not a new interest in service. It is nineteen years of it, with the receipts, and a platform that would finally let the work reach the people who need to hear it. I am ready to serve, inspire, and represent the Greater Toronto Area, and all of Canada, with authenticity, intelligence, and heart.